When you focus on the wrong number, you usually lose the right one.
I used to get irritated when my kids ordered dessert at restaurants.
Eight dollars for a slice of cake?
No thanks.
It felt wasteful. Unnecessary. Excess.
Meanwhile, I had no problem ordering a drink that cost more than the dessert.
Somehow that was different.
It took me a while to realize what was actually happening.
I wasn’t reacting to the total cost of the evening. I was reacting to one visible line item. I had already mentally accepted the cost of dinner. But I fixated on the extra eight dollars like that was the thing that would tip us into financial ruin.
If eight dollars truly mattered, we shouldn’t have been at the restaurant in the first place.
I was arguing about the wrong number.
And I see sellers do the same thing all the time.
A buyer asks for:
• Help with closing costs
• A survey
• A minor repair
• A concession here or there
And suddenly it becomes a matter of principle.
“I’m not paying for that.”
“That’s their expense.”
“Why should I give that up?”
Fair questions.
But often the better question is this:
What is your acceptable bottom line?
The buyer is the one bringing the money. In a very real sense, they are paying for everything. Line items are adjustable. Credits can be offset. Numbers can move.
If a buyer wants $5,000 toward closing costs, one option is to fight about it.
Another option is to account for it in the counter and protect the net.
The goal is not to win the line item.
The goal is to achieve the outcome.
I have watched deals stall over issues that ultimately amounted to rounding errors in the context of the whole transaction. Not because the math didn’t work. Because someone needed to “win.”
Principles are important. Ego is expensive.
This doesn’t mean you give things away. It means you focus on the right target.
If your objective is to sell your property at an acceptable number, don’t sabotage that objective by locking onto a number that doesn’t actually matter.
Learning to question my own “obvious” reactions has made me better at helping clients question theirs.
Sometimes the smartest move in a negotiation isn’t pushing harder.
It’s zooming out.
P.S. You may not be ready to sell today, but does it help to know what your realistic bottom line looks like before you negotiate? Request a MBR Land Reality Check below.
No cost. No obligation. Just clarity before decisions.
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